Hear me out guys, a fic with Frank x reader. But...werewolf!Frank and Vampire!Reader. Reader is a young vampire and is barely a hundred years old, Frank being a bit older finds reader helpless and weak because they haven't fed in a while, and helps them but he acts like he doesn't like you even though he's already drooling at how your crimson eyes look at him like a puppy. Reader is eager to please and somehow sunshine. Frank is an alpha and subtop because I say so, and reader is whatever you want them to be🤤
Edit: and at some point Frank lets reader feed from him. andd reader is taller because Frank is three apples tall
Summary: What happens when a vampire drinks the blood of a werewolf?
Since Matt and Frank tend to follow the same group of enemies, while their respective species hate each other, they both still regularly end up working together. One night, after Matt gets severely injured and is on the brink of death, he has little choice but to drink Frank's blood since Matt refuses to bite humans, criminals included. Neither expect what happens next.
R18+ 🔞🔞 || Current WC: 11,7k || Chapters: 2/3
CW: alternate universe - vampire!Matt & werewolf!Frank, blood and gore, blood drinking, serious injuries, canon typical violence, sexual content, more smut in the next chapter
A/N: written for @frattweek and the prompt “Blood”.
Read it on AO3
Chapter One : First Taste
As Frank laid low, hidden on top of a row of shipping containers, his ears perked up at the new scent that entered his nose, announcing another presence several feet above him. A low growl instantly built in his chest as the scent registered as one of a vampire. The growl never fully formed, however, and died down when Frank’s nose recognized this specific vampire.
Matt Murdock. So he’d heard of this shipping too.
“Frank,” Murdock intoned evenly in greeting, gracefully landing on the container in his usual dark outfit and settling down next to Frank.
“Murdock,” Frank replied in kind without taking his eyes away from the binoculars he was looking through.
Nothing more was said while they both waited for the moment they’d have to spring into action, which was how they usually did things.
They’d known each other for years, but since they were from two different species that mostly hated each other, they usually stayed out of each other's direct paths. They did overlap regularly considering that they often targeted the same groups, and were forced to work together during a run-in here or there, particularly if either of their species were involved in the crimes. Frank didn't mind the vampire all that much, however. They were generally arrogant and conceited creatures, who loved playing with their prey before taking the kill. This Matt Murdock, though, while being a snarky bastard as Frank had discovered over time, wasn’t like that. As a matter of fact, Frank had never seen him kill anyone in the years they’d been around each other. Which surprised Frank, but not as much as the fact that Murdock didn't even drink his opponents’ blood. He'd seen the bloodlust in the vampire's behavior, even seen it when he'd lost his red glasses, revealing a set of equally red eyes, burning with the need to drink, to kill. Yet, he’d never done it. In times like these, Frank wondered whose blood Murdock was drinking to sustain himself, if not his enemies’, since his coven was known for being a pretty peaceful one that never made any ripples. It hadn’t taken Frank a lot of effort to find out more about Murdock once Frank had bumped into him a few times. The Nelsons and Murdocks were a New Yorker coven, well known among the supernatural community and owning various businesses throughout Hell’s Kitchen, like a law firm that Murdock was part of. Frank had asked around his contacts for information, but they’d all told them about the same things. The coven didn’t cause problems for the humans or supernatural creatures and took care of things among themselves if needed.
On the other hand, Frank, himself, didn't have this kind of scruples when it came to taking the lives of the people undeserving of his mercy. That said, he also refused to let his bite take and let whoever he took down wreck more havoc and despair by letting them live. After losing his family and the pack he’d been born into to a pack war that he’d been the only one to come out of alive, Frank had joined another pack soon after. He’d needed an outlet for his rage and despair, and that’s precisely what this pack of power hungry wolves had provided. Nevertheless, he had long ago separated from this pack as well, regardless of what years of solitude could do to a pack animal. After decades of fighting in a futile war against different species, he'd finally come to his senses and simply left, refusing to sire other werewolves anymore and using his grief as an excuse for his actions. He might have been born a werewolf, and while his kind was slowly dwindling since mixing with humans didn't always guarantee a werewolf offspring, he refused to inflict the curse on a human ever again. Frank could shift at will, the full moon only making him stronger. That wasn't the case with a bitten werewolf, who was forced to turn and lose itself to the animal side. Which only made it easier for the born wolves to control them and lead them into battle.
While Frank had met peaceful packs over the decades, some of them he even was in regular contact with now, he was too used to being on his own to imagine being part of another one anymore.
Now, alone, he preferred using his shifter powers to take down criminal organizations, which occasionally hid darker, supernatural activities. All this alongside a weird vampire at times.
Said vampire suddenly stiffened, which had Frank glancing at him to see him tilting his head up and to the side with a frown, sniffing the air. Frank understood why a second later as the scent of blood trailed into his nose. Frank had no doubt that his sense of smell was far stronger than one of a vampire, but he also knew that, like sharks — the comparison always had Frank snorting to himself — vampires could smell the faintest traces of blood over a long distance. That’s why it came as no surprise that Murdock had noticed it first.
“Blood,” Frank muttered in confirmation to Murdock’s tense posture. “Loads of it.”
It looked like the container ship currently docking was the one they’d all been waiting for.
Murdock’s jaw tightened, the grinding of his teeth audible to Frank as the vampire stood with an affirmative nod. Frank stowed the binoculars away in his rucksack and stared at the silent vampire, who visibly swallowed. A hint of a fang came into view as he licked his lips in thought, which had Frank glancing at Murdock’s mouth with a frown. While the fangs could drop for different reasons, one of them was whenever a vampire was hungry.
“When’s the last time you fed?”
Murdock’s head jerked towards Frank, only for his mouth to pull down with a small scoff.
“You don’t have to worry about that, Frank.”
“Oh yeah? I do if you’re gonna lose your shit because you haven’t fed properly,” Frank countered, as he watched the blood and organ trafficking cargo beginning to unload on the other side of the pier.
Murdock sighed and rubbed two fingers between his eyebrows. “That’s never happened and you know that.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never seen you ‘round for this amount of blood ‘n shit.” Frank jerked his head towards the pier. They’d have to move soon if they wanted to stop any truck from leaving with the stolen goods. “You can’t tell me you never drink any blood ever, Red. I know you can eat like a human, but I also know you still need blood to survive.”
“‘Course I do,” Murdock ground out, clearly annoyed with Frank's interrogation.
“Right, so again, when-”
Murdock snapped and slid in front of Frank so quickly that it almost seemed like he’d teleported, his nose practically touching Frank’s.
“Now listened here, Pup, d’you really think I’d come to a fucking blood deal while hungry?” Murdock hissed viciously, his eyes flaring red with anger behind the tinted glasses. Frank had clearly struck a nerve because while they did engage in verbal sparring on a regular basis, Murdock usually kept his anger for the enemy and had never referred to Frank as ‘pup’.
“No, I don’t,” Frank said evenly, choosing to ignore the barb, and stared right back into the unnatural eyes, even for a vampire, visible behind the glasses. “But the way your fangs just dropped…” He carefully observed Murdock’s reaction as he trailed off.
The vampire stayed quiet for a second before he took a step back and faced the scene on the other side of the shipping containers.
“I fed a couple days ago. I’m fine… It was just the sheer amount of blood that triggered them to come out,” he explained in his usual measured tone.
Frank thought about it for a second and nodded. That made sense.
“Like a kid in a candy store, huh?” he smirked, throwing Murdock an amused glance.
The vampire snorted and nodded faintly just before he moved to slip down the side of the container. Frank watched him go for a second, always fascinated with Murdock’s silent grace, as the vampire didn’t make a single sound, even to Frank’s ears. As Murdock was stepping onto the asphalt, Frank left the rucksack on the container for later and took a giant leap that had him landing next to the vampire. The latter shot him a quick glance and snorted at Frank's theatrics.
Thanks to the shadows lining the docks as well as their stealth, they quickly arrived close enough to the large ship to launch their attack. They didn’t need a plan, both of them knowing each other’s strengths enough to never end in the other’s path. By the time the smugglers realized that they were under attack, both men had already taken out several opponents, slashing and swiping through the crowd with vicious efficiency. Shots were fired wildly around them, which only had Frank grinning as he moved left and right to avoid some, while purposely letting others pass through his body. His healing abilities being extremely fast, the wounds were already starting to close by the time Frank was landing on the man who’d shot him. Meanwhile, Murdock was vaulting over the enemy, or sliding low to swipe his legs out before taking them out with his claws and fists. As Frank threw one guy into the water, he watched Murdock flipping over another before hitting him in the face with a round kick in midair. Frank huffed out a laugh at the impressive maneuver, only to come to a sudden halt at the unexpected scent coming from the ship. Murdock, who’d just punched another of their opponents unconscious, stilled as well. His head cocked up towards the top of the ship, where several dark silhouettes appeared.
“I see you’re still out to cause us trouble, Matthew,” said a low, female voice with a sweet but disapproving tone.
As he walked closer to him, Frank’s eyes slid toward Murdock, noticing his tense posture and sensing the thinly veiled hatred emanating from him.
“So they were right, it was you behind all of this,” Murdock replied, his tone icy but otherwise calm.
Frank had no idea who they and you were, but this was obviously a vampire deal hidden behind human trading, and Murdock undoubtedly knew these vampires. Rather well, even, from how Murdock seemed to force himself to remain calm, which wasn’t something he usually struggled with. Frank normally was the impatient one of the two.
One of the figures jumped down the ship and landed several feet away from them, the move as silent as always. Frank’s hackles rose as the vampire walked into the light with confident strides of her long legs. She was clad in an immaculate white pantsuit, and her straight, gray hair cut sharply underneath her jaw highlighted her strong cheekbones. Murdock’s jaw tightened as she took a few steps towards them, her eyes sweeping over the groaning forms of the human criminals with a condescending moue of disgust.
“As useless as always,” she sighed, before bending at the waist and pulling one of them up by the collar and into the air with no effort at all.
Murdock twitched with the impulse to move, but ultimately didn’t, which had Frank doing the same, deciding to gauge this newcomer before acting. She chuckled at the struggling man in her grip, before directing her grin at Murdock and lowering the human until she could pull his head to the side with her other hand. With her eyes still on Murdock, she opened her mouth, showing her fangs, before she dropped her head towards the man’s neck to rip into his skin. The man cried out in shock and pain and tried to fight, but it was futile. Murdock’s fists closed as he snarled, but he didn’t move. Clearly, this wasn’t the usual, small vampire clan they sometimes came across; otherwise Murdock would have already stepped in. This was the only reason that had Frank holding back as well. The other vampires hadn’t come down from the ship, and just this older one was already having Murdock on edge. Soon, the human stopped struggling, his body going limp as the vampire drained him with quick and vicious pulls of her lips. Once she was done, she simply tossed the man into the water, like he was some disposable trash. She licked her lips in distaste and rubbed over her bloody bottom lip with a thumb, which she glanced at before sucking on it.
“The things some humans eat nowadays… makes their blood taste… greasy.”
“Maybe you should stop then,” Murdock threw in with contempt.
She simply smiled at him indulgently before she came closer, only stopping once she was right in front of him, showing that she was about as tall as Murdock. Her eyes ran over his face with a sad smile, while she slid the back of her fingers along his cheek.
“Such a waste,” she said wistfully, not reacting to Murdock pulling his face away from her hand. “I do miss you and these lovely eyes of yours, sweet boy.”
Frank’s eyebrows rose at the endearment before he frowned. Who was that woman?
“I’m afraid the feeling isn’t mutual,” Murdock gritted out.
The woman only chuckled, like Murdock was being an unreasonable child.
“Oh Matthew… Do you really prefer being out here, associating yourself with some disgusting mutt?” She gently clapped her palm against Murdock’s cheek, while Frank snarled at her words. She ignored him, however, only to sigh regretfully when Murdock took a step away from her. “Well… I see that you’re not amenable to talk. So I’m afraid I’ll have to return to my business.”
As if on cue, the second she turned away from them, the other vampires leaped off the ship and landed on the pier. There were eight of them, and just from their stance and the energy coming off them, Frank instantly knew that this wasn’t going to be easy. At all.
And right he was. After exchanging a few punches with Murdock, one of the male vampires hit him square in the gut, using his claws to sink into Murdock’s flesh. The hit was so strong, that despite the claws lodging into his stomach, Murdock still flew a few feet through the air before landing on his back with an audible gasp. Frank was quick to retaliate, however, jumping over Murdock and onto his attacker, using his brute strength to take the vampire’s head clean off his shoulders as he landed behind the creature. A satisfying grin appeared on Frank’s face at the sound of the vampire exploding into a pile of gory goo, as well as at the sight of the other vampires hesitating at the demonstration of strength. It was short-lived, however, since they hissed and snarled and sprang into action. Three of them lunged at Frank, though only two made contact as Murdock returned into the fight. He took out the third one in midair, using his claws to slice through the vampire’s chest and rip her heart out, leaving him with blood and gore on his arms as she disintegrated. One of the vampires managed to rip into Frank’s torso, and tore out a large chunk of his waist. Frank howled in pain, but the adrenaline coursing through him had his healing powers running on high, which helped him to move without barely missing a beat. He staggered briefly, but let the vampire sink her claws into his chest, which brought her closer to his face. It took him only a second to let his head morph into its half wolf form, his jaw turning wider as his teeth lengthened into deadly canines. The vampire shrieked when Frank closed his jaw over her throat, but the sound quickly dissolved into gurgling before stopping as he took the head off completely. As he let more of his body shift into its semi wolf form, making him taller and larger, he simply sidestepped the body turning to a puddle of gore. Despite his superior strength, these vampires were clearly warriors of some sort, since Frank had to use all the skills that he had acquired over his long life to take them down. Meanwhile, he only heard the fighting going on behind him on Murdock’s side. With only one vampire left attacking him as he bled from several wounds, Frank turned halfway to find Murdock struggling against two others. They were all in bad shape, but Murdock had clearly taken the brunt of it all, as one of the vampires had him in a chokehold and tried to claw Murdock’s throat out. Frank, distracted by the scene, didn’t manage to duck the attack onto his chest in time and snarled as his opponent sank both of her clawed hands into his chest with a maniacal laugh. With victory shining in her eyes, she landed on top of him as he fell to the ground. Frank growled low in his throat and twisted his body, howling as the motion tore at his skin. It served to get her off his chest and under him, though. She struggled against him, but they both stilled at the sound of police sirens approaching the docks.
“Fuck”, she hissed, using Frank’s distracted sideways glance to push him off her and jump to her feet before running straight towards one of the warehouses.
Staggering to his feet, Frank watched her joining the older vampire, who stared at them with fury in her eyes. A second later, the two other vampires ran past Frank and in the same direction as the female one before all of them vanished into the darkness, leaving their precious cargo and the unconscious or dead humans behind. Apparently, powerful vampire or not, having the whole police force involved wasn’t something she wanted to happen. Frank turned away from the scene, his body returning to normal, and found Murdock lying on the ground. Cursing under his breath, Frank ran up to him, grimacing as the motion pulled at his injuries. Since Murdock hadn’t exploded into a puddle of gore, Frank knew that he wasn’t dead, but the prone form didn’t bode well all the same.
Sure enough, while Murdock was covered in the remains of his kills, his shirt was torn to shreds, revealing a torso that looked more or less the same as the shirt.
“Shit,” Frank grunted at the sight of the injuries.
While they’d had close calls before, the other times and been nothing compared to the state that Murdock was in now. As was Frank. He could feel the broken bones of his ribs and arms shifting back into place, as well as the large gashes and deeper wounds closing. In fact, while he’d been watching the vampires flee, his body had already started most of the healing process on the newest wounds. Nevertheless, while he was on his way to being fully healed in the next few minutes, Murdock didn’t seem to be healing at all. Frank didn’t have time to contemplate what was going on now, since the police sirens were just around the corner. Reaching underneath Murdock’s armpits, Frank hefted him into a standing position before stooping and pulling the other man over his shoulder. As fast as he could, he made his way between warehouses and lines of containers until he reached his van, ignoring the rucksack from earlier. After unlocking the van, Frank opened the back doors and lowered Murdock onto a conveniently placed, worn blanket. The vampire’s glasses had been knocked off his face, leaving it looking almost bare. While vampires didn’t typically need to breathe, Frank knew that the born ones still did it to fit in with the humans. Murdock was panting, which didn’t seem to be a good sign, and he still wasn’t healing.
“Why aren’t you healin’?” Frank questioned, frowning deeply as he pushed the torn shirt out of the way to get a better look at the damage. There were several, deep lacerations crisscrossing Murdock’s chest, and one of the vampire’s he’d been fighting had nearly managed to reach his heart, since there was a large hole under the rib cage. His throat had seen better days as well, the skin there shredded in some places. Meanwhile, Frank’s own injuries had all closed, as if they had never been there in the first place.
“Too much… damage,” Murdock choked out, a trickle of blood running down his chin. “Too weak to trigger the healing process.”
“Meanin’ what?” Frank said in disbelief. “You gonna die?”
Murdock gave him a feeble smile, his reddish eyes glancing at Frank through heavy lids.
“That’s…” Frank trailed off. He hadn’t expected that. Could vampires die of actual blood loss? This sparked an idea. “What about drinkin’ blood? That oughta help, right?”
“Yes.” The answer was simple and held no real inflection.
“So let’s get you some blood,” Frank deadpanned, annoyed by the lack of response Murdock was showing.
The anger only rose when Murdock sighed and shook his head.
“Not drinking anyone’s blood, Frank,” he rasped weakly.
“So what’s your plan?” Frank grabbed Murdock by the shoulders and pulled him into a sitting position, which had the vampire hissing in pain. “You wanna die? ’s that it?”
“No,” Murdock growled, his fangs showing through the pain. “I don’t, but-”
“Then you gotta drink. I’ll just get one or two of the beaten little assholes from back there ‘n-”
“No!” Despite his weakened state, that one syllable came out sharply. “I’d rather die… than potentially kill anyone.”
Frank roared with rage and banged his fist into the side of the van, making it shake with the force of the impact.
“You’d sacrifice yourself over some fuckin’ lowlife ?”
Murdock didn’t answer, but the silence came through loud and clear. Frank growled and turned his face away, thinking and fuming. Why wouldn’t he drink? Frank couldn’t understand it. Sure, considering his injuries, Murdock would probably need more than one or two of these little fuckers to get back to full health. And they were already beaten to a pulp, so Frank might have to get some other scum off the streets. But if Murdock refused, how could Frank bring the vampire enough blood to survive? Because there was no way that Frank was going to let him die.
Suddenly, an idea came to Frank, leaving him frowning as he looked back at the other man.
“Bite me,” he blurted out.
Murdock scoffed with an eye roll as he adjusted his position with a pained grimace. “Fuck you too, Fra-”
“No,” Frank cut in, as the idea continued to form in his head. “I mean literally. Bite me.”
“What?” Murdock's brow lowered over his blood covered face, showing his confusion.
“Drink my blood,” Frank elaborated, shuffling closer to the other man as hope surged in his chest.
“Don't be ridiculous… I can't drink werewolf blood,” the vampire wheezed before coughing up blood.
“Says who? You ever tried?”
Murdock watched him silently for a few seconds.
“I don’t think it’ll work.”
Despite his words, Frank could finally see a sliver of hope in Murdock’s hesitance.
“Maybe not, but what choice do you have? You don't wanna drink human blood? Fine. But if you wanna live, we gotta try… ‘sides, not like you can turn me. And you can't drain me as easily as a human. I heal too fast for that.”
“But we don't know — What if there are… consequences… I've never heard of this being done before.”
“‘course not. My kind hates yours and vice versa, and I doubt any of your prim, lil’ vampire friends from earlier would ever stoop low enough” — he made quotation marks in the air — “to drinkin’ werewolf blood.”
“What if I hurt you, though?” Murdock continued, his voice only a strained whisper now. “You were pretty… injured too.”
Frank waved his hand dismissively and sat cross-legged in front of the other man, who was sitting in the same position.
“I’m fully healed. But I doubt you’ll hurt me anyway. And I'm offerin’ to help, ‘kay? You might be a right pain in the ass at times, Red, but I'd rather not have you die if it’s all the same to you.”
Frank smirked at the small but painful sounding chuckle coming from the vampire.
“I knew… I'd grown on you.”
Frank snorted. “Yeah, like mold.” He held out his arm. “Now drink.”
Murdock hesitated for another second before he took hold of Frank's arm by the wrist and elbow and brought it to his lips. Frank watched with a mix of curiosity and apprehension but didn't look away when Murdock lifted his eyes to his as he opened his mouth, revealing his glistening fangs. A loud hiss came through Frank's teeth as the fangs pierced through his skin and sank deep into his wrist. His body automatically tried to fight the attack, but Frank forced himself to relax. Which turned out not to be a problem after the first drag that Murdock took. The change in both of them was almost instantaneous. Murdock moaned deeply and lowered his head further over Frank's arm as he greedily drank, while Frank growled at the sudden spikes of pleasure shooting through him. What the hell was happening?
His whole body felt like a soft electric current was coursing through it, a sort of tingling going from the point where Murdock had his mouth and right to the base of Frank’s spine. Frank panted softly at the sensation, only noticing after who knew how long that his eyes had closed to revel in the feeling when he struggled to open them again. It took him another couple of seconds to find out that he’d made the right call in suggesting Murdock drink his blood. With Murdock’s head bowed over his arm, Frank couldn’t see everything, but the strength that Murdock was holding his arm in place with was already telling. When Murdock uttered a deeper moan, Frank finally realized something else. He was hard. And painfully so. His cock was throbbing in his jeans, twitching each time Murdock sucked harder or groaned with need. Stunned by this completely unexpected turn of event, Frank forced himself to focus on the healing process. He shifted slightly back from where he’d more or less been looming over Murdock to see that the shallower gashes on his chest had vanished entirely already, while the hole was closing faster and faster the more he drank. Frank felt light-headed, but he knew that it wasn’t from blood loss. He could feel his body burning up as it fought to create more blood, but it was also buzzing with the waves of intense pleasure. Without actively thinking about it, his other hand found itself slipping into Murdock’s hair. Closing his fingers in the dark strands, he felt another zap of pleasure when Murdock moaned at the treatment. Frank watched the blissful expression as the vampire drank, only a small trail of blood running down one side of his greedy mouth. In his state of arousal, Frank could only appreciate the sight. After letting him drink for another small handful of minutes, Frank noticed that Murdock seemed fully healed, but he didn’t stop sucking on Frank’s wrist any less.
“Red,” Frank croaked, and gently pulled at his arm.
To his surprise, Murdock snarled and clamped his fingers tightly over where he was holding Frank’s arm.
“Shit,” Frank gasped at the delicious but vicious pull of his blood. He closed his eyes for a second but tightened his grip on Murdock’s hair after a beat and tugged sharply. “Enough,” he growled, letting the rumble of the wolf reverberate in his chest at the word.
Murdock finally let go, his head flying back in a flash as if he’d come to his senses. His eyes were wide and burning a vivid red, while Frank’s blood stained his fangs and lips as he panted roughly. They watched each other silently, the scent of surprise and arousal strong on both of them.
“Sorry,” Murdock ultimately rasped, as he dropped his gaze in embarrassment to take in his healed body.
Frank shrugged dismissively. “You good? All healed?”
Murdock blinked a few times, patting at his chest and throat with quiet wonder. Clearly, while he’d hoped that Frank’s idea would work, he hadn’t fully believed in it.
“Yeah,” he said softly, before he huffed out a small laugh and glanced at Frank again with a bemused smile. “Thank you… Frank… I…”
“Don’ mention it.” Frank licked his lips and scratched the back of one ear, wanting his dick to finally go down. “Glad it worked out.”
“Yeah…” Murdock trailed off and cleared his throat. “Did you feel any… discomfort? I can usually feel what the person I’m drinking from is feeling… but it’s been a long time since I did this and with you being a werewolf, I’m not sure if…”
“Nope, all good. I mean, no pain or, uh, anythin’.” Frank muttered awkwardly, wondering whether Murdock had felt the pleasure that Frank had experienced. “Why?”
“Just… checking. You know… It’s the first time I’m drinking werewolf blood and…” He shrugged with one shoulder while he shifted where he was sitting.
“I’m feelin’ fine… You can have a sip any time,” Frank said with a note of humor to defuse the weird atmosphere. Although, at the back of his mind, he knew that he actually meant it.
He'd never quite experienced something as erotic and intense as having his blood drawn by a vampire… However, something told him that his response to having a vampire drinking his blood had more to do with Murdock himself than anything else.
Murdock laughed faintly and nodded. “Noted.”
After a minute of silence, Frank felt calm enough to switch position and sit against the wall of the van next to Murdock.
“Can I ask why you won’t feed on anyone?” Frank hadn’t meant to ask, but he’d felt stumped by Murdock’s choice to die before he’d drink any human blood. “I mean, you obviously do drink blood to live, so why not just feed on some random criminal? Especially if you’re about to die. You can’t turn anyone without some… process. And as far as I know, you can glamour people, and make ‘em forget you ever fed on ‘em, right? You don’t even need to kill ‘em… Is it a thing your coven does or somethin’?”
Murdock glanced at him, face impassive, before he stared down at the hands in his lap.
“You’re right on all of it except one… It’s a personal thing,” he said quietly before being silent for a beat or two. “I don't feed on humans because I don’t trust myself to stop in time. I haven’t directly fed from one in… ages.”
The confession was made in a soft tone, but Frank could still hear the sadness and remorse in it. Thinking back to the moment when he failed to first get Murdock to let go of him, there visibly was some additional backstory to the whole thing.
“Lemme guess… the old bloodsucker from earlier has a part in that story.”
Murdock smirked at the name, but his lips twisted unhappily a second later. He sighed deeply.
“Yes and no… I've always struggled with… controlling my thirst. When I was still young and around my family, it was manageable. But then I left and…”
Murdock gritted his teeth and slanted his head back against the van's wall while staring at the ceiling. Frank watched him quietly. He suddenly had so many questions. They'd never been in a situation where they really had the time to talk and while he’d done some research, there were still many things that no one seemed to know about Murdock. Frank had to admit that this curious vampire more than intrigued him.
“Your eyes,” Frank started softly. “Never seen anythin’ like ‘em on a vamp before either, and trust me, I've seen my share of ‘em.”
Murdock looked back at him and gave Frank an amused half smile. He was probably surprised by Frank's desire to talk, but he also didn't seem to mind.
“I don't expect you did… That's also a thing the old bloodsucker had a part in.”
His smile vanished again, though, and he sighed heavily.
“It's a messy story that doesn't exactly put me in the best light.”
Frank snorted and bumped his head against the van as he took up the same position as Murdock.
“Yeah? Wanna compare who did the most fucked up stuff in our fuckin’ long lives?”
Murdock rolled his head toward him with a smile that held a mix of amusement and sympathy.
“Would you be offended if I admitted to looking you up when we started running into each other more frequently?”
Frank barked out a short laugh, unsurprised that they’d both done their homework on each other.
“Well, you’ve clearly found out more ‘bout me than me ‘bout you. And in that case, you should know that whatever you did, can’t be worse than what I did.”
Murdock observed him for a second before he nodded and stared in front of him.
“I guess I at least owe you an explanation about what happened tonight.”
“You don’t owe me shit, Red,” Frank stated firmly. “If you don’t wanna-”
“Her name’s Alexandra Reid,” Murdock began with a small glance at Frank. “She’s the leader of one of the biggest and most powerful covens in the world… And I used to be her right hand.”
Frank stared. As much as he had guessed that Murdock and that woman had a shared history, he had been far from imagining that Murdock had been that close to her.
“What you saw tonight was something I was a part of for a long time. As far back as organ and blood trafficking could happen that way, I was right there when it started… But I joined her long before that… Like I told you, I’ve always struggled with my thirst. Not as much as being constantly thirsty, but once I started to feed it was hard for me to stop… My family, they found ways to stop me if I wasn’t able to, though… Things changed after I met a vampire from a new coven. She was strong and smart and fiercely independent, and like me, she wanted something else for our lives than being stuck in one place… forever. When we met Alexandra, she was so charismatic and played into every dream we had. That, as vampires, we shouldn’t have to hide. The world was ours for the taking, and humans were just there to feed us. If I killed one or two… or more when I fed, it didn’t matter… Hearing all of this… I realized that I was done fighting myself. I wanted to be free. I wanted to use my powers how I saw fit. As did Elektra… So we both left New York, despite my coven’s warnings. Afterward… well, let’s just say that it all came with a long trail of blood and destruction.” Murdock’s jaw worked as he stopped. He’d said everything in a neutral tone, as if he was telling Frank a story about someone else.
“She died, didn’t she?” Frank asked softly, feeling an odd sense of kinship with the vampire, since he could already guess where the story ended. “Elektra. It’s why you came back.”
Murdock bowed his head over his chest and stared at his fisted hands for a minute.
“Alexandra loves her occult rites … Over the centuries, she tried to find rituals to gain more power, but she usually did them on her own or with some shaman or other. That night, though… She needed our help. I still don’t know what she’d planned, but whatever it was, it backfired. It attacked my eyes, making me almost blind during the day and only able to see some shadows of red, while I can truly see at night… And it killed Elektra.”
Frank only watched as Murdock contemplated his curling and uncurling fingers.
“Once she was gone, I quickly realized how wrong we’d been about Alexandra, how wrong we’d been about everything. To Alexandra, we weren’t worth much more than humans or another species. Elektra’s death didn’t even faze her. She called it a regrettable accident and went on with her day. It took me a while, but I managed to leave and come back here… I don’t know how many humans I killed or turned, Frank. But on the day I left, I vowed that I’d rather die than take another human’s life ever again, regardless of who they are. Which is why I don’t feed straight from a human anymore. After over a century of not bothering to measure myself, there’s no way I’m taking any risks.” He smiled softly. “I was lucky to have my coven accepting me back, despite the things I told them I’d done… I know what your opinion on vampires is, and you aren’t wrong, but my coven, my family, they’re good people. My closest friend, who’s now the leader of the coven, has contacts in a local hospital that made a deal with him to get me the blood I need without ever biting again.”
Frank nodded. Everything made much more sense now, and it was weird how close their paths ran in some aspects.
“I should’ve taken her head off earlier,” Frank said with contempt, as he went about the information he’d just gotten.
Murdock uttered a short and approving laugh before they lapsed into silence. After a few minutes, Frank glanced at the dashboard and noticed the time.
“Lemme give you a lift home,” he offered, while getting up and sliding into the driver’s seat. “Sun’s gonna be risin’ soon.”
Murdock made a grateful sound of agreement before sitting next to Frank on the passenger side. He didn’t offer information on where to go, seemingly unsurprised that Frank knew exactly which part of the city he was from.
“This building.” Murdock pointed out once they’d reached his part of Hell’s Kitchen.
Frank stopped in front of it and turned his body toward Murdock with one arm resting on the steering wheel. Murdock didn’t move for a few, long seconds and stared out the windscreen.
“Thank you, Frank. What you did tonight… You didn’t have to do any of it. Especially as a werewolf.” He turned his head in Frank’s direction, his red eyes watching him like Frank was a complicated puzzle.
Frank laughed under his breath and shook his head.
“I don’t care about that, Red. Just didn’t want you to die, is all. Who else’s gonna annoy me with their snarky comments if you’re gone?”
Murdock laughed heartily and finally opened the door to get out.
“See you around, Pup,” he grinned wickedly, as he stood on the sidewalk.
“Hey, stop that shit. I let it slide earlier, but I’ll kick your ass if you call me that again”, Frank called out, leaning over the passenger side to glare at the laughing vampire. “Ugh, I take it back… I should’ve let your smug ass die back there.”
This only had Murdock laughing harder and actually winking at Frank, who huffed and rolled his eyes while a small smile pulled at the sides of his lips.
“Take care, asshole,” he muttered just before Murdock closed the door with a nod and a smile.
As Frank drove off, he glanced back in the rearview mirror to watch Murdock enter his building. He thought back to the smiling mouth and the blood stained fangs and still wondered what the hell this night had been.
